Candide

I recently read the short novel Candide by Voltaire. This was a unique story about the nature of mankind written by a very pessimistic philosopher. In the story the main character, Candide, goes through numerous ridiculous and depressing situations, losing friends and family and lovers along the way. All through these situations Candide believes that everything that happens is good and providential because that was what he was taught by his mentor. "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." is his and his mentor, Pangloss'es motto. By the end of the book each one of his friends is thought to have been killed by some tragic end, but then discovered to have survived whatever incident had befallen them. By the end of the novel everything seems to have turned out the way Candide had wanted it, but it is concluded with Candide being unhappy and unsatisfied with the perfect life of which he had dreamed.

The story was very comical and I enjoyed reading it, but I cannot claim to agree with Voltaire's position of the human condition. It seems in the end that he believes that life is just a series of unfortunate events that we were merely placed into and are expected to live through. Although Candide and his mentor are both unwavering optimists, by the end of the book you see that they are both fools that cannot be believed. Even Candide himself resigns that their motto that all is for the best is not truly the case in this or any other world.

Candide was written as a response to infamous "the problem of evil", and leaves the reader just as confused and indecisive as any college course on the subject would. My personal beliefs on this subject is that we don't see "evil" in it's proper form. Pain and death are not evil, they are natural. What we should be questioning is the nature of man and how we are the creator's of pain and suffering through selfishness and ignorance. This could be a world that doesn't have evil if all could realize that our purpose on life is to love one another.